Heat Up With Concerts Close to Home

Motley Crue, Vans Warped Tour, Boise Music Festival, Rockstar Mayhem

For our Summer Guide, we put together a big list of warm-weather suggestions (starting on Page 14), including music festivals worth a drive (this page). But for the music lovers who plan to stay put, things will be hoppin' around here, too, and there are more music fests than you can shake a '90s one-hit wonder at. Following are a few.

On Wednesday, July 13, the Idaho Center Amphitheater is going to sound--and in the midst of summer, maybe feel--like one of Dante's circles of hell. But the guttural shouts will not be coming from demons. All of the noise will be courtesy of the performers--and fans--at the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. The lineup is stacked with heavy(metal) hitters: Disturbed, Godsmack, Megadeth, Machine Head, In Flames, Trivium, Suicide Silence, All Shall Perish, Unearth, Kingdom Of Sorrow, Red Fang and Straight Line Stitch. The show starts at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 adv., $49.50 day of show. For more info, visit rockstarmayhemfest.com.

The Boise Music Festival, which suffered some from surprisingly high attendance numbers--with more than 70,000 people attending its inaugural debut last year--will take over Ann Morrison Park again. On Saturday, July 23, from 9 a.m.-9 p.m., the air in the park will be thick with the music of the '80s and '90s: Joan Jett, MC Hammer, Sugar Ray, Andy Grammer, Rock Mafia and He Is We, as well as more than 20 local bands, while vendors, beer slingers and various other food purveyors vie for whatever time isn't spent loving rock 'n' roll, being told you can't touch this, or wanting to fly. The Idaho Lottery is all over the BMF this year and this week (a full two months before the event) started holding "Prize Ticket Stops" at various businesses around the valley. Prizes for winning lottery tickets include backstage meet-and-greets, autographed guitars and a grand prize of a car from Internet Auto Rent & Sales. BMF is free to attend. For more information, visit boisemusicfestival.com.

The sounds of drunk 40-year-olds singing along to "I Love Rock 'N' Roll" will be unmatched by the squeals of thousands of 'tweens on Friday, Aug. 12. Gym Class Heroes, Against Me!, The Expendables, Less Than Jake, August Burns Red and many, many more hit the Idaho Center Amphitheater during this year's stop of the Vans Warped Tour, which is only one day before Motley Crue, Poison and the New York Dolls take over the same venue. The show starts at 1 p.m., tickets are $30 adv., $35 day of show. Visit vanswarpedtour.com or idahocenter.com for more information.